In 2008, Jaha Koo attended a symposium celebrating the 100th anniversary of Korean theatre. Nonplussed by it, he wondered whether other countries could establish such a precise genealogy for their theatre, when and how western theatre was imported into their countries, and how it became a substitute for popular, traditional theatre to the point of becoming the only theatrical expression in South Korea. The History of Korean Western Theatre tries to find answers to these questions — why does everyone keep on referring to Shakespeare and deciphers the lost identity of Korean theatre. Following Cuckoo, which he has taken worldwide, Jaha Koo is premiering his latest creation at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. The History of Korean Western Theatre focuses on the way in which the past tragically affects our lives today and attempts to produce a crack in modern Confucianism whose heritage, tinged notably by Americanisation, the high-tech, militarism, patriarchy and totalitarianism, continues to shape the moral system, way of life and intergenerational social relationships in South Korea.
 

Confronted with the SARS-CoV-2 crisis, we had to cancel this project